Spending Review: target NO2 pollution with vehicle excise duty hikes, say MPs

The influential Commons environmental audit committee has urged the Chancellor to act to reduce air pollution with higher vehicle excise duty for cars that emit more NO2.

The MPs say that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs's plan to deliver air quality improvements rests too much on action by local authorities. "The committee reiterates concerns set out in 2011: transferring EU fines to local authorities where air quality standards are not met would be unfair, since the causes of poor air quality often arise from policies for which central government is responsible."

The committee urges the Chancellor in his Spending Review on Wednesday to make his vehicle excise duty changes incentivise the reduction of NO2, not only CO2 emissions, and calls for a national vehicle scrappage scheme targeted at diesel vehicle owners.

Committee chair, Huw Irranca-Davies, said: "Despite mounting evidence of the damage diesel fumes do to human health, changes to VED announced in the Budget maintain the focus only on CO2 emissions. This was a missed opportunity. The Treasury must create long-term incentives for drivers to buy cleaner hybrid and electric cars."